Kampsportshistoriker og kampsportsutøver
Innlegg om brytere fra det 20. århundre, brytekamper, og wrestlingfilmer.
(This post is an excerpt from my new book, Gotch vs. Zbyszko: The Quest for Redemption, published on February 2, 2022.) The most important event affecting the future of Frank Gotch’s career occurred on January 11, 1911. Gotch married the former Gladys Oestrich at her parent’s home in Humboldt, Iowa. Mrs. Gotch preferred that Frank retire from the ring which
Januar 2, 1911, Swiss wrestler John Lemm found himself the laughingstock of professional wrestling fans and reporters. The incident occurred when Lemm wrestled Stanislaus Zbyszko in Buffalo, New York. Fans considered Zbyszko the top contender for Frank Gotch’s world title. Zbyszko was a world class wrestler although more skilled in Greco-Roman wrestling than catch wrestling. Lemm was a skilled
During the early 1920s, Tex Rickard declared war on his former boxing promotional partner, Jack Curley. Curley promoted professional wrestling in New York City. He also organized promoters in large cities such as Boston and St. Louis into a wrestling trust. The trust controlled the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship. The trust froze out any wrestler, who refused to go along
This week’s post is a confession of sorts. For år, I have written that Frank Gotch was the only wrestler to defeat Stanislaus Zbyszko during his initial tour of America between 1909 and 1914. I recently read Wrestling in the Garden, Volum 1: 1875 til 1939; The Battle for New York – Works, Shootes and Double Crosses (affiliate link) av
Joe Stecher capturing the world wrestling championship from Earl Caddock is the oldest professional wrestling film in existence. Tragisk, promoters filmed the biggest matches of the 1910s and 1920s including the second Frank Gotch-Georg Hackenshmidt match, but they rotted in storage areas. Camera operators filmed Ed “Strangler” Lewis vs. Wayne “Big” Munn, Stecher vs. Stanislaus Zbyszko, and the reunification match
One of the legendary tales about Joe Stecher concerns a legitimate contest he had with one of Martin “Farmer” Burns wrestlers, when Stecher was barely out of high school. Burns heard about Stecher’s growing reputation and decided to test him with one of his wrestlers. For år, I thought Stecher defeated Yusif Mahmout but he actually wrestled Yussif Hussane. Den
In his book Hooker, Lou Thesz wrote about the rivalry between two of his favorite wrestlers, Joe Stecher and Ed “Strangler” Lewis. Stecher and Lewis would emerge as the two best legitimate professional wrestler of the 1910s. Either man could beat every other wrestler at the time in a legitimate contest or “shoot”. The men wrestled three long, boring contests
Prior to the creation of the territorial system in 1948, pro wrestling promoters fought with each other to control the world championship. Promoting the world champion led to bigger gates, so most promoters wanted to control the championship. In the 1930s, promoters would enter into agreements with each other but they were often fleeting. When one promoter got offended, thought
Hvem er den største legitime profesjonelle bryteren til å bryte i USA? How do you determine it when wrestlers “worked” or cooperated with each other in matches since the sports emergence in the 1860s? . I examined the records and stories around the American, British, Polish, and Turkish wrestlers, who wrestled in the United States between 1870 and 1915
William Hayes Shaw, som kjempet som Pat O’Shocker gjennom det meste av sin brytekarriere, fant seg i søkelyset i 1933. O’Shocker lette ikke etter denne typen berømmelse skjønt. Aviser hadde en historie om hvordan brytingspromotører prøvde å bruke O’Shocker i et planlagt dobbeltkryss. Joseph “Toots” Mondt booked wrestlers out of New York and was aligned with